If you've never played daily fantasy baseball before, it's time to start. Unlike traditional leagues, you're able to select the players you want on that specific day only, giving you a different squad to root for each and every day.
And while there are many platforms to play daily fantasy baseball on, one of our favorites is from our partners over at DraftKings.com, a place where over $300,000,000 will be won this baseball season. Never played over there before? It's time for that to change. Sign up now and use our optimal lineups here at numberFire.com to crush the competition. You won't regret it.
As for today's lineups -- those can be found here. The information below is to help you understand why particular players are being picked, because we don't want you going into the things completely blind. We want to help you. Keep in mind, however, that things often change up until the games start, so make sure you're refreshing the optimal lineups as close to the start of games as possible.
Top Pitchers
High-Cost Pitcher
has been scratched from his start; consider targeting DraftKings tonight, and given that it's a full slate, you can probably find enough value bats to pay up for two pitchers. But if you really want to load up on bats, then at least consider Estrada. Dating back to the start of last season, Estrada has a strikeout rate of 20.6%, 10th-highest among pitchers on the slate tonight.
Estrada had a huge outing last time on the bump, striking out 10 in 8.2 innings and allowing just two hits. He's also hit the 20-point plateau on DraftKings in three of his past four. The Red Sox aren't necessarily a team to target, but if for some reason their lineup is a bit thin tonight, Estrada can cash in as one of our best value plays tonight.
Alternative Options: DraftKings pricing (where he costs $4,400). Turner is our top projected point getter, and the top three all come from the Dodgers-Diamondbacks game.
Turner has an absurd .331 ISO versus righties this year (the league average is .146) and a .476 wOBA (the league average is .312) and faces on tonight in a game with an over/under of 9. I don't need to complicate this recommendation.
DraftKings you can likely roster the leadoff hitter of a lineup projected to score more than four runs (per Vegas odds) against a pitcher who is just coming back from injury.
Well, Ivan Nova will be making his second appearance, and threw 6.2 innings against the Phillies in his first start. He struck out just one batter but walked two, and in 20.2 innings in 2014, his WHIP was 1.84. If Giavotella gets on, then the guys behind him should be able to make Nova work, allowing him to return value on a modest price tag.
Alternative Options: Logan Morrison, Chris Young